In like Manny: Why school chiefs get the big bucks

In the burst of public outrage that followed Manuel Rivera's 11th-hour thanks-but-no-thanks rejection of the Boston school superintendency, one number didn't get lost in the shuffle.

$300,000.

That's roughly how much Rivera was to get in base salary his first year here -- with raises to follow. Amid all the vituperation about Manny being Manny, the figure got prominent play.

But headhunters who specialize in superintendent searches say given the shrinking supply of candidates, Boston's salary level, and those of Brookline, Cambridge and Somerville, are not overly generous.

While Boston is considered a special case because of its size, headhunters said, the relatively high salaries in Cambridge, (number six of the 162 superintendents' salaries compared), Brookline, (number 13 ), and Somerville (38) are still relative bargains.

"It's a candidates' market," said Glenn Koocher of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees , which helps boards find superintendents.

Teachers who might once have gone into administration are looking at the escalating challenges superintendents face, and deciding to stay put, he said.

The job is, he continued, "like being a baseball manager: At some point, no matter how good you are, your team will not perform and you will have to fall on your sword."

In fact, the typical Massachusetts superintendent also makes less than his or her colleagues in a comparable district, according to John Connolly , senior consultant for search firm Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates .

"Massachusetts salaries are not that high," he said. The base salary for Boston school boss Thomas Payzant "was less than Fort Worth, which was a base of $250,000."

Judy Meyers , chairwoman of the Brookline School Committee, agreed. Massachusetts schools offer "very good retirement" for superintendents, "but the salaries tend to be less. That's why it's difficult for cities and towns to pay for a superintendent from another state."

Brookline's previous superintendent, Richard Silverman, came from Connecticut and chose after three years to return there. He is now superintendent in Randolph.

Superintendents in Brookline and Somerville receive the highest base salary of any public official in those communities. In Cambridge, only City Manager Robert Healy -- at $244,615 -- makes more than Superintendent Thomas Fowler-Finn's $185,500 .

These superintendents' school board bosses say they are worth every penny: They manage million-dollar organizations, are responsible for more personnel than mayors, administrators, or police chiefs, have to follow laws and mandates from the federal and state governments, deliver annual measurements of student performance (MCAS), and meet an increasing demand for data on every aspect of schooling.

"This is a really hard job," Koocher said. "In the private sector, a CEO would make a lot more money."

To set salaries for most Massachusetts school districts, headhunters look at what superintendents in communities of similar size and demographics are making, said Mike Gilbert, the school committee association's field director.

In Boston, "Because of its size, you have to look at national figures to set a comparable salary," Gilbert said. It's the largest district in the state -- with 10 times more students than Cambridge, for example. It has more diversity than most districts, and some of the oldest and best schools in the country, while also struggling to educate all of its students, Gilbert and Koocher agreed.

In Cambridge and Somerville, the school committees were advised by search firms they engaged before their 2003 superintendent hunts to revise their salary expectations upward .

Nancy Walser, of the Cambridge board, recalled that the board's original figure in 2003, as it searched for a replacement for superintendent Bobbie D'Alessandro , was roughly $145,000 in base salary. D'Alessandro was making $145,537 in 2002, and her contract was not renewed.

But Cambridge wanted someone with experience in raising teaching and learning standards in diverse communities, and needed someone who could handle the city's often time-consuming political considerations. "Our search firm," said Walser, "felt that to get the kind of experienced candidate we wanted, we would need to move up to a higher number."

They ended up hiring Fowler-Finn for $175,000 from Fort Wayne, Ind., where he had been paid $173,000 and had accomplished what Cambridge hoped to see in its classrooms, Walser said. While Cambridge is smaller than Fort Wayne, she feels it is more challenging because there is less agreement among its constituents about what makes a great school.

"The politically charged nature of schools in Cambridge means that you need a tremendously talented candidate who is up to that," she said. "People who want a great challenge also want a great salary."

Somerville, too, used a search firm, said school board chairwoman Roberta Bauer . Their advice? To "put our money on the table. . . . They really convinced us that for an urban superintendent, we needed to spend money."

The committee wanted a candidate to meet the city's challenges, which include a high poverty rate -- 60 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced lunch -- and a rising number of kids from more prosperous homes. The city also has many immigrants from Haiti and Central and South America, Bauer said.

One reason for the big rise in superintendent salary when Anthony Pierantozzi was hired in 2005 , Connolly said, was that his predecessor, Albert Argenziano, had been on the job 11 years. A superintendent will make more if he or she changes jobs often, noted Connolly. Many superintendents who remain in one town for years receive a 3 percent annual cost of living raise. But if they change districts, they get substantially more.

"I advise new superintendents to effect change, stay for five years, and move on," he said. "If you stay on, you're taken for granted."

Having had a school boss leave after three years, Brookline is now keeping an eye on superintendent salaries in comparable districts and maintaining William H. Lupini's so as not to lose him, said Meyers, the school committee chairwoman. He only arrived in 2004. "We want to be fair in what the town does," she said. "And you want to make sure he feels you want him to stay."

Not, it should be added, that money will necessarily seal the deal. When Rivera left that much-noted $300,000 on the table in Boston, he took a job with incoming New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. For $169,000.